Mill Village Morning
by Dale Layton
It’s five o’clock in the morning,
Lord knows it’s cold outside.
Mama’s still warm in our big feather bed,
I’m eatin’ these eggs that I fried.
I’m dreadin’ that long cold walk to the mill,
Where I’ll breathe in that cotton all day;
My hair’s white with lint,
And my back’s slightly bent
When I clock out at the end of the day.
In ten days or so they’re going to give me a watch
That I can look at as my life ticks away.
Now my hair’s gray and thin
And I don’t remember when
I ever thought my life’d be spent this way.
It’s five o’clock in the morning,
Lord knows it’s cold outside.
Some will say I coulda done some more,
But the good lord He knows how I tried.
It shore ain’t easy feedin’ six kids and a dog
On the money that I earn in that mill.
Mama keeps prayin’ I’ll get a raise,
And my foreman keeps sayin’ that I will.
Saturday’s the day that I long for each night
‘Cause I don’t have to go to that mill;
I take my dog and my boy, and oh what a joy
Chasin’ cotton-tails and walkin’ the fields.
Well, I coulda been a foreman some thirty years ago
But I’d a lost every friend that I had;
So I just told the big boss I’d put in my eight,
And I’d take home more good times than bad.
My savings are all spent,
Now I wonder where time went
That suddenly brought my life to this day!
It’s five o’clock in the morning...
